The records obtained by the Justice Department listed incoming and outgoing calls, and the duration of each call, for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and the main number for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP.

In all, the government seized those records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. The exact number of journalists who used the phone lines during that period is unknown but more than 100 journalists work in the offices whose phone records were targeted on a wide array of stories about government and other matters.

9 Comments on ““Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you””

Hi folks, it is the mostly dormant NJ co-state coordinator for NJ, among other things. Sandy just knocked me head over heels and I still have not recovered. Anyway, this is MAJOR. I would quietly inform every Tea Party/Conservative Group in your state that you know was targeted by the IRS (I am no lawyer….but) that this entire episode should be met with civil lawsuits in which our civil rights have been violated. The IRS officially has already publicly admitted they targeted us. Game, set, match, no?

Every single group should at least pursue the legal compensation angle.

Think of it as a Tea Party Pigford.

Go get ’em. As we say in NJ, CHARGE DAMMIT. The Movement could use this anticipated major infusion of cash. Just please follow financial norms with your treasuries in the future.

Scary stuff. What is even scarier is that with all the crap Obama and his Democrat bretheren pull, the BSTP sees fit to go after – Republicans!!!!! And they have the nerve to try and mooch money from democrats. Embarassingly stupid and classless.

If any supervisors at the IRS or the head of the IRS knew that this was going on, than they should be shown the door.

The phone records issue is tricky. Out of fairness it should be noted that the Justice Department is trying to find out who leaked the details of a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped an al-Qaida plot in the spring of 2012 to detonate a bomb on an airplane bound for the United States. Assuming they obtained a warrent to get the AP records, it’s entirely legal even if it’s beyound what many people have a comfort level with the govt doing.

This Justice Department has no credibility investigating anything, since the National Security Advisor leaked critical details about the Bin Laden mission and the Stuxnet virus and there was no punishment.

That is a little bit of a stretch don’t you think? If that were the case, the Justice Department would have done an “internal” record search to verify a leak, which they (CIA) are allowed to do under agency regulations. The fact that they have seized records from the AP to find a leak is well beyond the extent of authority.

@sensecommon: for better or worse its legal for them to do. I dont think the issue of whether there was a leak is in question though. I’m sure the question of whether they did an “internal” search first (and if so what were the results) will be revealed during what are sure to be Congressional hearings